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John Tresti
John Tresti (born John Gordon Tresti; March 15, 1973) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and composer. He first gained exposure when he released his 1998 album "Hidalgo" and his 2000 album "Moonchild". He also wrote and composed music for multiple childrens' TV shows, such as Blue's Clues and Happy Appy. Early life Tresti was born in and grew up in Rockford, Illinois. Tresti began playing the guitar at age 11, and began playing the piano at age 13. At the age of 20, Tresti entered the music business by forming a hard rock band called Kings of America. The band was unsuccessful, and Tresti would later recall, "We recorded probably 5 demo tapes and sent them all to different labels. None of them liked our work, so we split up." Tresti disbanded Kings of America in early 1995. Career After disbanding Kings of America, Tresti immediately started working on producing his own album by himself, with his personal record label, Tresti Records. Tresti wrote and performed all of the songs on the album in his garage, with a microphone, two guitars, a piano, and a keyboard synthesizer. The album (entitled "Hidalgo") was released in September of 1998, with mixed to negative reviews from music critics. "Hidalgo" was not only a critical flop, but it received poor sales as well. Only about 500 copies of the album were sold, and to this day Hidalgo is hard to find. The next (and last) time Tresti would produce another album was in 2000, with his record "Moonchild". In 1999, Tresti was approached by Nickelodeon to be a composer for their show Happy Appy. Nickelodeon told Tresti to write the theme song. Although some parts of the Happy Appy theme song production story are missing, it is known that Tresti gathered 5 Kindergarten students to sing the lyrics (which were also written by Tresti). Then, John recorded himself playing a keyboard synthesizer to the singing, put the two together into one song, and previewed it to Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon approved of the song, and they ultimately used it for Happy Appy's theme song. John kept his place in the music business after this, due to "Hidalgo" being a failure. In late 1999, Tresti got to work once more to write and perform a 2nd studio album. Tresti recorded this song in a proper studio rather than his garage, and he even got his friend Dean Lee to be his back-up singer and co-writer. The album was named "Moonchild", and was released in August of 2000. Unlike "Hidalgo", "Moonchild" received average reviews from critics. However, it was still a failure in sales, selling only 800 copies. "Moonchild" is even harder to find than "Hidalgo". Tresti disappeared from the public eye and the music industry after this, and wouldn't make a comeback until 2008, when he joined the heavy metal band Vampire's Lair. Tresti played the bass guitar in this band. However, although Vampire's Lair is still active today, Tresti left the band in 2012. Personal Life John Tresti was married in 2002 to Florence Craven, who was also a musician at one time. They have two kids, Peter (born in 2003) and Damien (born in 2007). Tresti is Roman Catholic. Category:Happy Appy (TV show) Category:Forenzik/Frederick related